A ghost from the past
by The pink fairy
Summary: Lilly woods missed out on the adventure to the royal river the first time round, but when she returns with the boys four years later, will she still get to see Ray Brower's dead body?
1. Chapter 1

" And this is the spot where ol'Gordie fainted like a pussy, cos he had a big fat leech hangin form his balls" Teddy Duchamp let out a wild laugh, and patted a not so amused looking Gordie Lachance, roughly on the back.

It had been nearly four years, since Teddy and his friends had embarked on the life changing quest to recover the body of Ray Brower, and now at aged sixteen they had returned to the Royal river once more. This time, however, they had an addition to the group, a female addition, the same female who missed out on the adventure all those summers ago, due to a sudden bout of measles that had her hauled up in her room for nearly three weeks, like an animal in quarantine. This addition was Lilly Woods.

Lilly Woods had white blond wavy hair, which was often tied up with a ribbon that had been carefully colour coordinated to match her out fit. She had a heart shaped face with pretty features, including her dazzling emerald eyes, her only inheritance from her father, she was slim and slightly pale, and for a girl of only sixteen already had a body to rival a woman in her early twenties. Aesthetically, Lilly was everything a girl was supposed to be, but her sprit was wild, and more than a match for any of the boys . Lilly could often be found climbing dirty great trees in beautiful dresses with a dirt smudge across her cheek. Her mother often blamed Teddy's influence for what she liked to call "her daughters more rebellious side" but in reality Lilly was a free spirit, and adventurer that longed to go searching for life's great untold mysteries, whilst looking good in the process.

Lilly was Teddy's best friend and had been since either of them could remember. Lilly had been through everything with Teddy and the boys, she had helped to build their much treasured tree house, the secret knock to enter was her idea, she had comforted Gordie through his time of loss, and had even helped Vern to eventually find his long lost jar of pennies. But the search to find Ray Brower's lifeless corpse was the one thing she missed out on, and after hearing the boys talk about the trip so often, she finally convinced them to take her to where it all happened so that should see whether the images she had created in her mind were anything like the reality. Although this time it was decided that the friends would take Gordie's car, rather than hiking for two days, like last time.

" Hey, id faint too if I was covered in leeches, no matter what part of my body they were sucking" Said Lilly, a smirk appearing on her pretty face. Gordie smiled at her in appreciation.

" Guys, can we go back to the car already, I'm getting hungry, and you know I'm no fun when I'm hungry, sincerely!" Vern winced as though he expected someone to hit him, at the mere suggestion of leaving.

" We've been here five minutes, and what a surprise, the pussy wants to leave." Teddy advanced on a nervous looking Vern who began to edge towards the ends of the clearing.

" I don't wanna leave, honestly Teddy, it's just the food is in the car" Said Vern at lightning speed, determined to get the sentence out before Teddy had the chance to pound him.

" Hey man, cool it already, we can all go back to the car, grab the food and beers, and show Lilly where we found Brower's body." Chris was standing between Teddy and Vern arms out stretched, " That cool with everyone?" Everyone nodded at Chris in agreement.


	2. Just staring and staring

Several hours later, surrounded by several empty beer bottles, the friends were now sitting around a fire they had built themselves , in a darkened clearing ,a few yards away from the spot, that had for a brief period of time, been Ray Brower's final resting place.

" C'mon guys do I really have to" Stammered Vern, with a look desperation on your face.

" No one wimps out of a dare Vern" Laughed Gordie, slopping some beer down his trousers. " Shit, now it looks like I pissed myself"

" Hey you should dare Lilly to lick the beer off you" Smirked Teddy giving Lilly a not so subtle wink.

" Teddy Duchamp, if you weren't such a retard, and if I wasn't ever so slightly a teeny weenie bit drunk" Lilly held up her thumb and fore finger about a centimetre apart, " I would kill you with my super girly woman lady powers" Giggled Lilly attempting to jump into a heroic pose, instead falling awkwardly to one side. " Oooh, I found another pine cone for you Verno" Said Lilly, throwing the cone at Vern a little too enthusiastically considering she was sitting right next to him. The pine cone hit Vern squarely between the eyes sending a dull thud throughout the clearing, the other launched into fits of raucous. Whilst Vern rubbed his now red forehead in displeasure.

" Hey Vern that makes ten, now you gotta put em in your underwear." Smirked Chris handing Vern the pine cone that had just been thrown at him.

" Ok, ok but you guys promise you won't look." Grimaced Vern picking up the first pine cone.

" It's ok Vern we left the binoculars in the car" Joked Teddy, whilst dragging on his cigarette.

" Oh real funny Duchamp, hilarious" Scoffed Vern dropping the first of the pine cones down his pants.

About half an hour later, with Vern's pine cone dare done and laughed off. It was Lilly's turn to choose a truth or dare from Gordie. Owing to the fact that she was now definitely past the stage of simply being merry, she picked truth, last time she had picked dare in this condition, Teddy had had her running round topless singing lollipop in a French accent, and she wasn't quite drunk enough to forget that incident.

Gordie looked thoughtful from a moment or two, then smiled mischievously " Do you fancy any of us guys"

"Chris" Said Lilly defiantly, before she really thought about what she was saying. She would have never admitted this under normal circumstances, and she was ready to blame the bottle in her hand for her sudden outburst.

Chris, who was about to take a drag of his cigarette froze, he had liked Lilly since they were about ten, but until recently Lilly hadn't noticed the way Chris's beautiful blue eyes lit up when he laughed, she hadn't noticed the way he always made sure everyone else had an opened beer before getting one himself, and she hadn't noticed the fact that no matter how bad his family life got, he was always smiling, ready to help you with any problems you had, no matter how trivial or pathetic they seemed. It was these little things that attracted Lilly to Chris, and now he knew, now he could reject her, and now he could break her heart.

" You like Chambers?" Exclaimed Gordie who was now staring at Lilly with utter surprise. He wasn't the only one, Vern and Teddy were staring at her looking just as bewildered as Gordie. The only who didn't have his eyes so accusingly on Lilly was Chris.

" Erm,.. I gotta pee." Lilly said the first thing that came into her head that would give her a get out clause, and she was already cringing at what she has just said.

Without hesitation, Lilly stood up quickly and awkwardly, grabbed the flash light hastily switching it on in the process, and ran towards the nearest gathering of trees. She ran until she knew she was out of sight and fell face down on the forest floor, partly out of drunkenness and partly out of exhaustion from sprinting so suddenly. A tear rolled down her cheek, shed blown it, how could she possibly hang around with the boys now. She heard a rustling of leaves close by, and raising her head slightly saw a pair of blue and white keds about a meter away from where she was laying.

"Leave me alone please , go back to the others" Sniffed Lilly, trying to sound as though she hadn't just been crying.

" I can't go back, help me, please, I'm lost" cried a voice of sheer desperation.

Lilly froze, rooted to the spot with fear, the hairs on the back of her neck would have stood up if they too, weren't to petrified to move. The voice didn't belong to Gordie, Teddy, Vern or Chris. This voice was new, it was strange and it was alone with Lilly in the middle of a darkened wood.

" Please help me" The voice repeated this time more pleadingly.

Lilly felt like she was going to throw up, she was icy cold and covered in goose pimples, slowly and cautiously she raised her head. Her eyes widened, she wanted to scream but at the same time be deadly quiet. As standing before her was a boy of around twelve, he had dark brown messy hair and a bloodied face, his arms were out stretched, and his eyes were wide an glazed over. The boy wasn't blinking he was just staring. Lilly couldn't move she couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. Her heart was pounding, the sound of it came as a slight comfort in the dull silence of the wood. If she wasn't mistaken, and she prayed to god that she was, standing before her in the dark clearing. Was Ray Brower, the same Ray Brower that had been killed out right by a passing train four years earlier. She knew his face, everyone in castle rock knew his face, it was plastered over every news paper and every milk carton for weeks. And now that same face was advancing towards her, with it's arms out stretched, just staring and staring.


End file.
